To the public at large, and at a safe distance,
she did exude the confidence and poise of an heiress.
But as with the image of Marcos, there were flaws in Imelda’s media image. Manila is a small city. It is not possible to have the qualities the image makers proclaimed her to have and not be in the exclusive roster of Manila’s four hundred most prominent families. Until her marriage to Marcos, Imelda was socially insignificant. Despite a famous name and a beauty title, Imelda was not, by the city’s standards, an aristocrat or a society deb. More knowledgeable people kept their peace lest they be accused of envy. They viewed the image-making of the Marcoses as harmless fun. Moreover, Imelda was good copy, and prominent award-winning writers and editors, taken in by the aristocratic image, joined the cheering squad.
Yet it was Imelda who had, perhaps unwittingly, given away the clue that the image made for her by her publicists, and with which she concurred, did not hold together. Something about the portrait was askew, but the public was not prepared to question it for the moment. This had to do with her role in the 1965 Presidential campaign, which saw her rise as a political star in her own right.
Both friends and foes agreed that she had carried the brunt of the campaign. True, Marcos was a brilliant strategist, but it was Imelda who had had the stamina and determination to go through the demands of the campaign. It was one thing to have maps and plans for a journey but quite another to reach a destination. That was the unique role Imelda played, and this is confirmed by their closest colleagues. Marcos made the plans, but it was Imelda who implemented them.
The area of the campaign covered 1,700 municipalities, all of which had to be visited. It was Imelda who made sure that her husband’s campaign reached the most obscure and remote parts of the country, hopping from airplanes, jeeps, and bancas. She remembered the names of political leaders and their families and circumstances. She knew who needed a new roof, who was celebrating a wedding anniversary, who mourned a recent death. For these myriad tasks, the most precious talent was sheer endurance, a virtue not often found in aristocrats. Sleepless, determined, energetic Imelda fulfilled the role to the chagrin of Marcos and sturdier colleagues.